89 Responses to “BYOB Unite!”

– shouldn’t this scream painting be in a museum somewhere ? i remember watching the dp/30 the art of the steal – this belongs in the Barnes collection of paintings ..
how does one get insurance for a painting worth 100 million bucks ? if this painting is so important
does Walmart sell cheap versions of it ? i can print
out the scream painting for 25 cents and it’ll look
pretty much the same.

sure there are movies that come out this summer that will make 100 million but 50 years from now that scream painting will probably be around and who knows what it’ll be worth .

Ray. I dont want to spoil for the rest. I will just say its the best post credit scene ever and the fact that it exists is awesome.

Its weird to hear the kind of thought process js shared. Ive heard it from lots of people who seem to hold up Avengers next to Dark Knight as if the goals of any comic book movie are inherently the same.

Nolan is making very dark, very legitimate
cinema that plays with big ideas and concepts. Whedon made a ridiculously entertaining movie that is about as deep as a puddle of piss that is big fun and a great example of how much joy can be wrung from the over the top antics of our favorite super heroes.

But what Nolan does and what Whedon does are two different skill sets. Its like comparing an eight course meal to cotton candy.

The Avengers is NOT the defining movie of the comic book genre. Not even close.

Unlike Burton’s Batman, Noland, Batman Begins, Raimi’s Spider-Man, and yes, even the poorly directed Favreau Iron Man, it break no new ground whatsoever in the genre. It does, however, contain some stuff that people wanted to see. I’m good with that. But the only innovative thing in the entire film is the idea of a funny, more direct Hulk who’s not being chased for 2 hours.

Well, it’s official: The Avengers is no longer just a movie, it’s a phenomenon. How do I know? While driving to my campus office this morning, I heard on my car radio a mention of it on an ABC News break. Seriously: They have all of one minute at the bottom of the hour to cover the major events of the day, and they devote a few seconds to predictions that Avengers will break box-office records.

watched Hayden Panettiere in a episode of punk’d / mtv – she’s alright in it – after heros – she should have been
in more tv or movies but nothing award winning came out of it – she’s 22 but still can play a teen – still has
LOOK AT HER!!! factor – she could have gotten Shailene Woodley part in Descendants …gotten some oscar buzz and got her dp/30 … she could be a good reality tv star at this point … DP give her some dp/30’s and save her acting career – you have the power to save her.

David, that has been a topic that I’ve repeatedly discussed with students over the years in various Media and Society classes — the infotainment-ization of news, if you will. I can remember the first time I saw a major network newscast do a story on a movie’s outrageous budget — when Tom Brokaw did a report on Heaven’s Gate. I can also remember the first time I heard a network radio newscast devote time to a weekend box-office report on a Sunday afternoon. I’m not saying these events were good or bad. I’m only acknowledging that they’ve occurred, and have been steps taken on the road to where we are now.

And speaking of evolution — or, depending on your point of view, devolution — I can remember when you did a lengthy weekly column. Then you more or less changed over to blog postings exclusively. Now, by your own admission, you’re doing more Twitter tweets than anything else. Again, not saying that’s a good thing or a bad thing. It’s part of the ongoing change to… Well, I don’t know what.

major cultural event – what does that mean ? money or critics around the world like it ? both ? DP your the indie movie guy – isn’t more fun when indie movies hit 100 million that come out of nowhere ?

I’m producing a new movie in RURAL eastern Tennessee….it’s going well. This is really the first time I’ve been able to produce on-set and it’s been a really amazing experience so far. It’s also been insanely busy which I knew would happen, but as a 40-year old fatass, man….it’s tough. But (aside from really missing my wife, child and dog) I really feel in my element and that’s a cool feeling because we’re also making a movie I believe in and WE’RE MAKING A MOVIE!!

Anyway…
I’m psyched to see THE AVENGERS…..cast and crew field trip this Tuesday!

David, that’s your opinion, and not a declarative fact. You can state that it’s all about the Hulk, when Black Widow stands out just as much. You can state this is dismissing Nolan, when it’s praising the mastery of Joss Whedon to create a comic book masterpiece that takes a genre Nolan redefined, and changes it again. You can also state that it does not change the genre, when it does. This is the hammer being thrown down by Marvel to itself and to DC, that the world has changed and it’s time to take it up another notch. You can disagree but that’s your opinion, and you should avoid trying to force it on anyone especially me.

I’ve seen it, and it’s glorious. It’s what every comic book film should strive to be and what every comic book company should strive to create. Meh? Mediocre? Nah. It’s the definitive superhero movie, it is THE SUPERHERO MOVIE, and you can go ahead and dismiss it. You’ll be sort of lonely on that island, David.

You can’t ever have the sweet without the sour. This movie is sweet but the death of MCA is the sour to a ridiculous degree.

You deleted someone’s post for containing stolen content, something that you LOVE to rail about.

Yet your graphic for this post contains a photo of Scarlett that she says was stolen from her private phone. It’s not even a still from a film. It’s a personal image that was hacked that she is embarrassed by.

It’s funny, Drew… that I made both versions… that people know what that shot it with no reference made… and that you and Scarlett are apparently besties.

And thank you for showing up, as you usually do, to do your FAVORITE thing, telling me I am wrong about something.

But you have a reasonable point, even though I would distinguish between undeniable piracy of copyrighted materials and people leaving stupid personal things on their phone (or sent to someone else’s phone) then claiming to have been hacked. And so…

In my opinion this decision to use twitter as your primary means to communicate with your audience might be a mistake. I have lots of friends and acquaintances and none use Twitter on a regular basis and most have never even opened an account. I’d miss reading your blog but still wouldn’t make the switch to follow you. Is Twitter really that prevalent among the non-celebrity crowd?

I second, third, fourth…whatever number we’re on…Twitter is the repository of junk. Whenever I look there, all I find is a great big nothing. For me it’s only valuable for sending out links I’ve already posted elsewhere. But I’ve not found a single useful or interesting thing out of it.

Interesting thoughts on Twitter. I follow fewer than 50 people, I don’t use it for news gathering… so I don’t find it boring or overwhelming. And I have had many good, sometimes contentious, conversations.

For me, Twitter gives me a place where 140 characters… or sometimes 520… allows me to say what I feel compelled to say without a blog post, where I feel compelled to at least write 3 or 4 paragraphs.

Honestly, writing more economically is something in which I take pleasure.

What I need… and I’d really like to figure out… is a Twitter converter that really allows me to open up a conversation on the blog based on any 1 or multiples of my tweets or the tweets of others. That way, there could be open/non-140ch conversation about those ideas laid out on Twitter. But I don’t know of any technology built for that concept yet.

I can cut & paste from Twitter, but it seems like using a Model T to haul a spaceship.

David is right. I find myself posting a lot less, especially about breaking news, because really the news itself fits into a 140-character Tweet. Even looking over the latest trade ‘breaking news’ articles, it’s basically 140 characters of new/important content, surrounded by random filler so they can justify a paragraph or two and make a ‘news article’ out of it. Some things require analysis, but not every insight requires a full-blown essay explaining my reasoning or thought process.

I find Twitter more fun with friends; most of my Twitter activity is catching up with and/or replying to actual real-life friends; I follow a few famous people who are particularly funny or interested and — this is key — don’t post like crazy, but for the most part it’s like a punchier, games-free, more selective Facebook. A nice break from work to see what my best friend who lives four hours away is joking around about. The idea that it’s a bunch of idiots babbling about what they had for lunch only applies if you indiscriminately follow a couple hundred people without any particular interest in any of them.

it must be crazy pressure for people on twitter that have at least 1 million followers – they can’t write any old post – Justin Bieber and Lady Gaga are 10 million + -= that can move a lot of sales for anythying they want to promote .. actors under 25 are really using social media to its fullest .

director Kevin Smith and actor Joe Rogan really seem to like twitter – they actually read a ton of stuff – probably 10x more stuff than DP does – it also helps they have podcasts to discuss all that stuff .

DP – can you check out 5 minutes of videos of Hayden Panettiere on youtube and figure out if she’s worthy of a dp/30 ? i have no idea what your process is in getting an interview. usually if there’s a Duplass brother around they automatically get in. the rest have to wait in line. the lineup is real and it exists when oscars come around – actors just can’t wait to do a dp/30 because
giant film studios force them too. guess who didn’t need a dp/30 when there was time to get one for a entire year ? Lena Dunham … she was on Colbert and that was super fun to watch..

Stephen Colbert is my favorite interviewer ever – everybody watch some of his interviews if you have time .
he’s done like over 250 + so you have lots to choose from. Colbert is like 50x better than DP interviews.
sorry DP.

also i screwed up my order at mcdonalds today and 4 girls at the cash laughed at me. that was fun.

A murder mystery set in the world of illegal teenage gambling. A 17-year old must find his best friends’ killer before the game is exposed.

the last 30 minutes turns bad – this is a straight up tv movie … some bad acting by some teen actors nobody has heard of .. but the acting/ writing of one of the dads is so stupid and bizzare and funny.

SM, twitter is a lot of fun if you follow the right people. If you get the right mix, it’s a very interesting medium, and it’s not all narcissism. Not totally.

It’s also not about megalomania. There are people on there whose thoughts and tweets are very entertaining, but you have to find the right people. Again, it’s a mix, and Dave have you looked into tweet longer? There are a couple of those formats out there, that might work to give you the conversations you want to have.

Finally, who envies someone who doesn’t use the internet? Seriously? It’s the 21st century. The lines or wifi we use to connect make the world smaller, and it’s perplexing that someone would like the world as it were 20 years ago. I’d like the world as it were 20 years ago, if I could get the Higgins Boys and Gruber back, but alas… THE INTERNET FOR ME!

Have any new words been added to the don’t type list? I ask because there’s nothing in there other than stating twitter isn’t that bad, you need to find a good mix of people to follow, and it’s not all narcissism or megalomania either.

Also, David, twtlonger or a similar service may be what you want. While not using the internet in the 21st century is very weird.

“Nolan is making very dark, very legitimate
cinema that plays with big ideas and concepts. ”

NOOOO! Nolan ain’t Bergman, can we please just, collectively, get over that? PLEASE? And here I was actually looking forward to TDKR because we’ve finally got the rote origin story out of the way, and we’ve got the overhyped Joker melodrama out of the way, now we can just get down to Batman being a badass. I don’t want to hear about how it’s deep. I just want a simple badass in black tights who does some nice detective work here and there with some nice pacing and some good ass whupping. That’s IT. I don’t need to hear about how it’s “legitimate”. The guy is in bondage gear, there is nothing “legitimate” about it, so stop it.

I’m on Team JS about The Avengers. Great fun, big laughs, amazing action. Loved it from beginning to end. Ranks up there with the best of the superhero movies. I’m not going to hate on the people who didn’t like it, I’m just going to feel sorry that they couldn’t enjoy it.

See, brack very much illustrates the problems with our Thumbs Up/Thumbs Down Society.

“Im with JS!”

You might as well be a teenage girl screaming TEAM EDWARD!

I think just about everyone at least liked the Avengers. A lot of people loved it. But why do the people who love the film get so indignant about the people who liked it but found flaws?

Why do people get so worked up because they might not passionately love everything the same way you do? Why would you feel sorry for someone because they didnt have the exact same experience you did? Why does someone not enjoying a film with rabid ferocity ellicit pity?

Theres nothing wrong with being passionate about a film. Theres something wrong when your enjoyment has somehow transformed into sanctimony.

i wanted a dp/30 – she’s does drama and comedy and might sing in that new movie rock of ages movie – also done lots of indie movies – and she was in the watchman movie ../. she’s married and tabloids don’t follow her around … not sure how DP missed her all these years .

my favorite thing is her role in children’s hospital tv show … also she kinda looks like Olivia Wilde …

also DP mentioned that 15 actors haven’t done a dp/30 cause 5 personal publicists – my guess is they’ve been
acting for at least 10 years are super famous and rich
already. DP you should write them a nice letter – “hey actor x – i do movie interviews and you qualify for a 30 minute interview – call me within 30 days to get your interview done about any movie you want at any boring expensive hotel you want ”

right now there are hundreds of actors doing audio podcasts … DP time to switch it up and do podcasts
..video is old. go to nerdist and find like 200 audio interviews. ….or get the dp/30’s on tv . actors like
being on tv .

As a comic-book movie hater (or more softly put, I just can’t connect with them), still not sure why Avengers hit me as such a raucous pleasure. There’s a gentleness to it I like–a free spirit that trades the goofy for the sincere. At times I felt that tinge of movie magic a certain director is able to brush into the frame. I only know Joss from Firefly, but his presence is so obviously right for my fantasy cravings!

The movie has a heart to it. It’s that heart that made the moments that could be intilectually torn apart sort of not matter.

I keep going back to that gentle spirit. Maybe boyish and childlike is part of it? The big-boy emotions are really there, but it’s that love of the material he brings that grabbed me.

Liked too the simple humanizing of the characters. The fearful flaws each is hiding is always hinted at but not front and center in a movie that would lose its charm otherwise. Critics probably balk at that simplicity, but the way Joss spins the entire tapestry of emotion is kind of great.

anghus – you are making the assumption that I think anyone who didn’t love it adamantly is a pitiful human being. You are reading way too much into my statement, an example of why I hardly post here, too many of you simply have to question everything anyone states and construe it into something that was never there to begin with.

And you can’t even quote correctly. I specifically wrote “I’m on Team JS”. I’m glad you caught the Twilight fandom reference, which was fully intentionally, and based on your reply you didn’t get at all.

And what about what I wrote indicates I’m worked up? Am I using all caps to stress certain words? Give me a break.

To add to the “there’s no such thing as a perfect movie”, I would reply with “Of course not. People make movies, not God.” If nothing is perfect, then the word really has no meaning, except if you’re very religious. By the way, giving a movie a score of 10/10 or whatever barometer you want to use isn’t necessary saying a film is “perfect”. But to say no film can rank a 10/10 is to say that 10 doesn’t exist. Well if it doesn’t, why even reference it?

I get you are the curmudgeon of this forum but you do know, that grown men and women have use those terms and with a lot of affection. You don’t have to like it, but shitting on people who use them is rather lacking in civility.

“I think just about everyone at least liked the Avengers. A lot of people loved it. But why do the people who love the film get so indignant about the people who liked it but found flaws?”

People with this point of view, about finding flaws, ignores that few things in this world are inherently flawless. Everything and everyone at some point has or will have a glaring flaw. I ask you, what’s the point of fixating on those flaws? Why not enjoy the ride when the flaws are minimal at the very least?

“Why do people get so worked up because they might not passionately love everything the same way you do?”

Why do you think that I or anyone else would care if you loved something as much as I do? I love Adventure Time and Regular Show. Do you think that it would bother me one iota, if you gave me shit for enjoying those shows? No, it would not and you thinking this is what pisses fans off ignores that you obviously have been outside of fandom for a long time.

What pisses off a lot of fans, from reading replies, is being snarky and ignorant about what the supposed critic is reviewing. If you have a valid point. A valid point can be taken and even disagreed with, that’s still a valid point. The problem is and will always will be, the folks like David, who makes declarative statements about how a film will be remembered, and get vehement when you disagree with him or them. I am not singling him out mind you but AO Scott had a verbal beating coming. He just did because it’s one thing to criticize something. It’s another to think acting like an ignorant asshole is the same as being a critic.

“Why would you feel sorry for someone because they didnt have the exact same experience you did? Why does someone not enjoying a film with rabid ferocity ellicit pity?”

If this film elicits something in even people who hate comic book films. If it elicits joy on a ridiculous scale then why would we not pity you or anyone else whose world it didn’t rock? This movie kicks every ass of every superhero movie ever made and it does it with glorious and uninhibited joy. Why wouldn’t I feel sorry for someone who is not reveling in this?

“Theres nothing wrong with being passionate about a film. Theres something wrong when your enjoyment has somehow transformed into sanctimony.”

The problem with this statement is that you are being sanctimonious about people being sanctimonious, and that’s rather weird.

You lost me when you said lots of grown men and women use Team Edward/Team Jacob with great affection. Its almost impossible to take you seriously. Even if thats true, would any non teenage girl use that as the foundation for any serious argument?

most comic book movie have the good guys beating the evil guys at the end of the movie – then there are movies like Inception – which can easily confuse people even and then there are movies with open endings that also ocnfuse people like Take Shelter which relies on the last 5 minutes of the movie …then there are movies like Tree of Life …which make people go wtf ? then there are movies like Jack and Jill – which have an ending but the whole movie seems like a waste of money.

i’m guessing 90% of comic book movies have easy
endings – bad guy get defated – there’s no super crazy
plot twist at the end – and if there is it’s made for the 2nd film of the series.

a lot of horror movies – either the bad guy is defated or somehow survives . the survival in the craziest conditions sometimes makes for a bad movie like with
the Saw movies .

also i was hoping DP did a special dp/30 — idiots guide to tree of life with some movie critics but didn’t . also could have done one for inception too.

Anghus, that’s not an argument. It’s a statement. There is a difference between the two and it has more to do with responding to the way you dismiss things, that you do not like.

Again, I get all of this bullshit hurled my way for having a strong opinion, but you and other wiser and mature gentlefolks, can write such ridiculous statements like the one above, and expect to be taken seriously.

If you think I am a character, then that makes me wonder what the hell you are? Are you mimicking an angry Randy Quaid role or something? Also nice shot at teenage girls because you know, that makes you a big man.

sanj, your claim that some publicists are blocking dp30 requests reminds me of a Bill Maher quip from back in the day. He said he would try to get certain celebs on Politically Incorrect because he thought they were intelligent and well-spoken, only to get a call from an agent who admitted it was an act and their client wasn’t really all that bright.

Sam – DP actually mentioned that – any actor who’s been acting for 10 years who hasn’t done a dp/30 before – there is something wrong …like Tom Hansk – 20 years of acting – lots of awards – seems like a real nice guy – no dp/30 ..same thing with Sandra Bullock too ….i get a feeling that Tom Cruise dp/30 ..there would be a fight within 5 minutes …and a dp/30 with Julia Roberts would
be super scary ..

the dp/30 with Jen Lawerence was a massive success – DP predicted a lot of things that sorta came true … all before the hunger games .. now Jen has done too many interviews and a new dp/30 wouldn’t be as real.

next up for mega superstardom is Emma Stone – i liked her dp/30 ..she kept it real plus Juno Temple in dark knight rises ..probably has a small part but her dp/30 are great.

the Theron – Portman – Moretz where great but it was
more like a dvd extra …

the Robbie Pickering dp/30 was super funny – that was 50 minutes and somehow i didn’t get bored even when they did at the end ..

i do listen to a lot of podcasts and i could easily compare them to the dp/30 … some of the podcasts are
better than the dp/30’s .. people on podcasts can tell
more personal stories about whatever and most of the time it doesn’t annoy them to say personal things .
Jenna Elfman podcast was the funniest things for 20 minutes and it was extra personal.

maybe the best time for a dp/30 is when actors have no movie to promote – they can relax and not think about
other interviews they have to do.

Victor who gave Avengers a perfect review tweeted this – “Joss Whedon for President, Prime Minister and King.”

wow. how extreme can 1 person take a movie – to be fair – Victor hardly gives a lot of movies 10/10 .

Dave, Tweets are fine, but I would really like to hear your thoughts on Hulu thinking about requiring a cable subscription to view the content and what you think this means to the future of streaming content.

“There are different signs that this is not stopping. I don’t think that anger and frustration and those feelings can go away. I hope they don’t. The attention and support for the victims needs to be continued, more than people worried about these abusers and what’s next for them, how are they going to move on — shut up. You know what? If any of these people come back, I would say, “I can’t wait to see who is actually going to support them.” That is going to be the glaring horror. Who is going to be, like, “This is a pressing issue, and we need to get them back?” If a janitor was so great at cleaning the building but also tended to masturbate in front of people, would the people at that building be like, “Yes, he masturbated, but I’ve never seen anyone clean so thoroughly, and I was just wondering when he’s going to get his job back, he’s so good at it.” No, it would be, “That’s not acceptable.” It’s fame and power that people are blinded by.”
~ Tig Notaro in the New York Times

“It’s never been easy. I’ve always been one of the scavenger dogs of film financing, picking up money here and there. I’ve been doing that all my life. This was one was relatively easy because certain costs have gone down so much. I made this film in 20 days whereas 30 years ago, it would have been made in 42.”
~ Paul Schrader